NOTE BY HUNTER BEAR: August 5 2007
I certainly have as many thoughts and opinions as anyone else -- but I do try to avoid burdening folks [at least on discussion lists] with most of them. But I do feel obliged to give American Civil Liberties Union great credit not only for its pretty consistently good work on the Federal surveillance issues of our times [and other things generally] -- but for its just out super on-target sulphuric statement condeming Democratic Congressional cowardice in caving in this latest expansion of Bushie surveillance power.
[Most of the thoughtful in what's called the United States agree, I am sure.]
The ACLU hasn't always been on target. Always abounding with some good people, it waffled badly on the "Communist issue" back in the Red Scare days of my youth. That led to the necessary creation of the [National] Emergency Civil Liberties Committee [e.g., Harvey O'Connor and Corliss Lamont]. [But I should add, on a personal note, that both ACLU and ECLC did help me at several junctures from the mid-50s on.] Even though it still has today some state and local affiliates that pull their punches, most of their component organizations have been following the lead of its national leadership in doing good work.
On a related matter, I've been interested in the current TWA 800 retrospective on CNN. It was clear, back when that tragedy occurred, that the probable cause was mechanical malfunction. It's certainly clear now. But then, day after day, the same FBI agent gave the same "press conference" centered on "terrorism". Why? Because at that point, of course, the Clinton people and their presumed Republican opponents had teamed to ram rhough, in an atmosphere of concocted fear and hysteria, the 1996 Anti-Terrorism law. This provided for unimpeded Federally supervised "task forces" made up of state, county and local "lawmen" which then engaged in virtually uninhibited secret surveillance of "suspect persons." It also built in the Federal death penalty [which the Indian nations were fortunately able to resist accepting -- but no one else was.] And that 1996 Anti-Terrorism law, hailed by Billy Clinton, laid the basis for the Patriot Act and all of its other offspring -- which now flourish like poison ivy in a lush eastern Kansas river bottom.
And that, of course, brings us right back here.
Fight on -- and on.
HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´
and Ohkwari'
Check out our Hunterbear social justice website: www.hunterbear.org
[The site is dedicated to our one-half Bobcat, Cloudy Gray:
http://hunterbear.org/cloudy_gray.htm
Honored by The Elder Recognition Award of Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers: http://www.hunterbear.org/elder_recognition_award_for_2005.htm